1. Finish reading "Civi Disobedience", taking notes on the rhetoric.

2. Respond to the following questions, but not write a book! Answer clearly and concisely, and in complete sentences. Ensure that each answer ties into the text.
  • What role does the "state" play in your life? Do you have a contract or an "implied contract with the state? Consider "state" in its broadest sense: country, religion, business, school.
  • Select any passage from "Civil Disobedience" that especially provokes, stuns, annoys, amuses, or confuses you. Discuss why you choose the passage.
  • What do you owe the state? When you do have the right or even the obligation to rebel against the state? What does Thoreau say about this?
  • What is more important? The state or the individual? What happens when we rephrase the question: "What is more important? Autonomy or interdependency? Community or society? Is any person above the law? Socrates asked, "Ought a man to do what he admits to be right, or ought he to betray the right? Is the concept of civil disobedience above the law?
  • Does the United States have a tradition of civil disobedience? Indeed, does "rebellion" define our character?

http://www.viterbo.edu/perspgs/faculty/GSmith/civildisobedience.html